Summary and Paraphrasing Writing Lesson Activities.

I have just finished a section of lessons on writing a summary and paraphrasing. Like in my autobiography writing lesson it was based around a section from the book which required me to come up with many supplementary activities. Here are some of them!

Horror Movies ESL Lesson - Perfect for Halloween.

I have just finished doing this lesson with my high level classes and they really got into it. My students didn't need to be taught much of the vocab for the movie script activity but depending on the level of your class you could add in a vocabulary teaching activity as well.

Business English Lesson - Swot Analysis

This is the second in a mini series of Business English Lessons I gave to my high level students. It is taken from my text book so I am unable to share the whole lesson, however there are many ideas and activities you could use in your own lesson. The lesson is about SWOT analysis, which is a tool that businesses use to analyse business ideas. The lesson has the students looking at a couple of examples of SWOT analysis, before making their own for different products.

Business English Lesson - Blue Ocean Strategy

My textbook has recently had a section on business English and it brought up this very interesting lesson on blue ocean strategy. This is a theory that suggests that rather than trying to beat competitors in a crowded market (a red ocean) companies should create clear uncontested blue oceans. They do this by creating demand for a new product that was not previously there.

The metaphor of red ocean/blue ocean comes from an ocean being red due to the blood of sharks fighting and competing, while the blue ocean is completely free of competition.

Autobiography Writing Lesson Ideas

 

Recently I have taught a section on writing autobiographies from my text book. Alot of the activities were textbook based, so I am unable to share them here, however alot of the activities could be used in any lesson about Autobiographies. I will aslo explain the textbook activities as it would be easy to creat your own material for most of them.


High School ESL Self Portrait Conversation Lesson

This is a fun lesson about analysing self portraits that all my students enjoyed. First you will teach them some vocabulary related to self portraits then the students will have to draw a self portrait that represents themselves. The downside is that a fair amount of time is spent drawing a self portrait of themselves, but you could either ask them to do it as homework or set a specific time limit for drawing the picture.

ESL Music Gap Fill Exercise

This is part of a lesson I have just done about reassurance. It is a simple gap fill exercise, just give each student a worksheet and ask them to fill in the gaps. McFerrin's accent is obviously very strong but his voice is clear over the music and he speaks very slowly so the student's did not have too much trouble. I have included both a worksheet and a PPT you can use if your students have whiteboards/notebooks and you want to save paper.

I also ask a bonus question which is if they notice anything unusual about the song. The answer is that it is a cappella. There are no instruments used throughout the song!

How to teach an ESL Debate Lesson.

Debate ESL Lesson

I have recently started teaching debate lessons to my high level high school classes. The students seem to really like them and they get very involved in the debate. The lesson as a whole gives them great practice in presenting, speaking, listening and even reading depending on how you ask them to research their ideas. This is how I structure my debate lessons.

Business English ESL lesson-Analyzing Graphs

 

One of my high schools specializes in teaching science so this lesson was particularly useful. The students first learn some phrases they can use when analyzing graphs before having the chance to practice these phrases with some real graphs. Finally they make their own graphs and present them to the class.

Role Models and Icons ESL Activities

This isn't one lesson so much as a collection of activities I have used over the topic of role models and icons. Throughout this subject there are plenty of chances to involve all your student's favourite celebrities and famous people, which invariably gets them excited about the lesson!

Fun ESL Speaking Activities Using Dialogues.

This year I have been given text books for all my classes, the quality of the book varies however the one thing all the books have in common is.. Dialogues! Dialogues can be a great way to get all the students speaking natural and correct English, however just repeating the same phrases over and over can get a bit dry. Here are some activities I use to spice them up a bit!

Food From Around the World ESL Lesson Plan

Photo From Epsos.de

This is a great lesson to teach advanced or adult students about food. The quiz at the start is tough but gets them really interested in the topic. The rest of the lesson is spent talking about different categories of food and the differences between what countries eat and what the reasons are.

First Day Back Year Goals Lesson

This is a lesson I have recently used on the first day back at school. The aim of it is to get them thinking about what they want to achieve at school and in their personal life for the following year. It is a good lesson to do to get the students settled into their new class environment and to get them thinking in English. This lesson has two different levels, one with lots of free thinking and a reading /analysis section and one lesson that is more structured for lower levels.

Great Video Resources for ESL Sports Lessons.

Sports is a topic that ESL students love, and also a topic that I love to teach! This is a list of some useful video resources that you can use in your sports lessons. I have also included a few links to some lessons where I have used these videos so you can get an idea of how they can be used in your class.